Masterful movie and score. Melodic enough that it should make for a solid stand-alone listen, but it is extremely affecting in the movie, and you don't necessarily have to be a Morricone fan to appreciate how well it works. Tragic, violent, and beautiful - and all done with a delicate touch, even in its most operatic moments. Check it out!

What's odd is, I don't even remember it's release announcement or theater play back in '81. Or reviews. This must have sank pretty fast.

Technically, if you read the description of this CD, the movie was never released theatrically in America; only when Criterion issued it on DVD did North America get to see it for the first time.

How 'bout that. Live and learn.

Not quite accurate, though Z Channel here in LA showed it back in the early 80s - I still have my Betamax recording of it from that airing.

This movie was shown for a single weekend at a drive in theater in Fernlock, Texas in 1982 as a co feature with 8 1/2. It also is played by an animal shelter in Wormstick, Arizona ( East of Phoenix) and it seems to calm the yapping which bothers the folks in the trailer park nearby. I am waiting for the collector's DVD edition which contains the deleted scenes and several humorous outtakes. The gist of the story from IMDB "The film is based on a true story. While she was living in Hollywood with her husband, writer Romain Gary, actress Jean Seberg brought home a large white dog she had found on the street that seemed friendly and playful. However, when the animal saw her Black gardener, it attacked him viciously, injuring him. Afterward, the couple kept it in the back yard, but one day, it got out and attacked another Black man on the street but no one else. After this happened a third time, they realized that someone had trained the dog to attack and injure only Black people. Gary wrote a magazine piece about it, which eventually became a full-length book, and Samuel Fuller read it and made it into this movie."

I am speechless, this is one of my holy grails. Fantastic news. Thank you so much FSM. This is the one American movie where the director really allowed Morricone's music to be an integral part of the film, check out the scene near the end where the dog is believed cured but then turns again, a stunning combination of music and image that no other American director has managed to match (in respect of using EM's music effectively). One query though, wonder why the music to the church scene is in the bonus tracks, this is one of the most haunting themes in the score.

I am speechless, this is one of my holy grails. Fantastic news. Thank you so much FSM. This is the one American movie where the director really allowed Morricone's music to be an integral part of the film, check out the scene near the end where the dog is believed cured but then turns again, a stunning combination of music and image that no other American director has managed to match (in respect of using EM's music effectively). One query though, wonder why the music to the church scene is in the bonus tracks, this is one of the most haunting themes in the score.

There were three versions of the church scene music, with different titles. The film version is in sequence ("After the Murder").

What a coup from the the masters of film music. Well done Lukas Kendall and all at FSM this is indeed a welcome addition to my vast collection of Maestro Morricone scores. I do have the film and found very insightful. Well done again. Ciao.